Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Timothy 5:23

"Be no longer a drinker of water, but use a little wine for thy stomach`s sake and thine often infirmities." — 1 Timothy 5:23 (ASV)

Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your frequent infirmities.—Those who argue that this Epistle was the artificial composition of an age after St. Paul’s, and was written largely to support the hierarchical development, which, they say, only became apparent in the century after St. Paul’s death, have considerable difficulty in explaining the presence of such a command as this.

It can, in fact, only be explained on the supposition that the letter was truly written by St. Paul to Timothy in all freedom and in all love: by the older and more experienced to the younger and comparatively inexperienced man; by the master to the pupil; by an old and trusted friend, accustomed to speak his whole mind, to one who was his inferior in years, rank, and knowledge. No ecclesiastical forger of the second or third century would have dreamed, or, if he had dreamed, would have dared to weave into the complicated tapestry of such an Epistle such a charge as “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine—considering your frequent infirmities.”

The reminder was, no doubt, suggested by St. Paul’s own words, with which he closed his solemn direction regarding Timothy’s dealings with the accused presbyters and the care to be used in the laying on of hands: “Keep yourself pure.” That Timothy possessed—as did his master Paul—a feeble body, is clear from the words “your frequent infirmities.” He was, above all things, considering his great position in that growing church, to remember “to keep himself pure,” but not on that account to observe ascetic abstinence, and so to weaken uselessly the frail, perishable, perhaps ever-dying body, in which he had to do the great work committed to him in the Master’s church.

Abstinence from wine was a well-known characteristic feature of the Essene and other Jewish ascetic sects. We know there was frequent interaction between Alexandria and Ephesus ; and it has even been conjectured that Apollos, who taught publicly at Ephesus, was himself a famous Essene teacher. The practice of these serious and ascetic Jews, many of whom became Christians, no doubt considerably affected the habits and tone of thought of the Ephesian congregations. Hence the necessity of St. Paul’s warning against allowing bodily strength to be weakened through abstinence and extreme asceticism.